Let Me Change You
by Sunahu
Summary: The path to healing is not an easy one. How do you learn to love when all you've known is hate? Post-War. AU. Companion to Let Me Go. SasuIno.


**Hand Of Sorrow**

* * *

**The child without a name grew up to be the hand**

**To watch you, to shield you or kill on demand**

**The choice he'd made he could not comprehend**

**His blood a grim secret they had to command**

Itachi Uchiha of the leaf.

It had been so easy, to consider himself a shinobi of Konoha. To carry on mission after mission, to grow up fast in order to be the best shinobi that he could be. After all, he had a reason to strive to be the best that he could, to ensure that peace remained in his village, his home.

He had known the moment he had first laid eyes on him, so small and fragile as his mother carried him in her arms into the house they lived in for the first time. Like chains of steel he felt bound to that small bundle of flesh and bone, and those large obsidian eyes that blinked up at him mesmerized him in ways that nothing ever had before. After all, he had already seen more than a boy his age should have.

He was so innocent, so untouched by all the evils and horrors that he had seen.

And he wanted nothing more than to protect that innocence.

**He's torn between his honor and the true love of his life**

**He prayed for both but was denied**

But of course it had not been easy to make that final choice, to make the ultimate sacrifice.

For the first time he cursed the heavens, cursed the fates that had placed him in such a cruel position.

He had long ago disagreed with his clan's philosophy, their greed and pride. He knew that they must be stopped in order to maintain the peace that he had promised to keep. After all, that was the reason he had become a double agent in the first place. In naive hopes that somehow he could find a way to please both sides. But too soon he realized how childish of a notion that had been. There was no room for a truce between the two sides.

But disturbingly enough, that was not what bothered him the most.

No.

What bothered him the most was the certainty that in order to maintain the peace within his village, he had to destroy the innocence he longed to protect.

**So many dreams were broken and so much was sacrificed**

**Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?**

**So many years have past, who are the noble and the wise?**

**Will all our sins be justified?**

Even as he released the Reanimation Jutsu and he locked eyes with his baby brother for the last time, he could still not seem to wrap his mind around the actions that had led to this moment. He could still not comprehend what was right and what was wrong, and whether he had made the right choices. After all, he had destroyed his innocence, forced him to grasp onto hate and vengeance in order to survive the remnants of _his _actions.

He had robbed him of a loving family, of the very notion of love.

And he had robbed himself of the brother he loved so dearly.

**The curse of his powers tormented his life**

**Obeying the crown was a sinister price**

**His soul was tortured by love and by pain**

**He surely would flee but the oath made him stay**

But what other choice had he had?

He had pledged his loyalty to his village, and knew that he was the only one capable of the mission that he was given.

But at what cost?

Sometimes he found it hard to know who he was as anything more than a tool. Who he was as Itachi Uchiha, a living and breathing person. He had wishes, and desires. And not a day went by when he didn't find himself questioning the path he had chosen, the actions he had taken, and the actions he was to take.

So why?

Why did every time he return home, he was there to greet him?

With those large and sincere eyes? So full of love and admiration… it broke him in ways no mission ever could.

It was in moments like those that he wished it was possible to simply taken him into his arms and leave the village forever, to protect him in his own way.

But that simply wasn't an option.

Not in this life.

Not in this village.

**Please forgive me for the sorrow, for leaving you in fear**

**For the dreams we had to silence, that's all they'll ever be**

**Still I'll be the hand that serves you**

**Though you'll not see that it is me**

And it was for that reason that he knew he could never expect forgiveness.

How could he, when he had broken him, and destroyed every hope that he had for his future.

Even if every decision he had made was for him, he could not expect Sasuke to understand. How could he, when all he had seen was betrayal and destruction at his hands.

He had managed to maintain peace, but he knew the reality.

Peace was an illusion, where evil lurked in every shadow, waiting to rear its ugly head.

And now as he watched the war play out, and the shinobi emerge victorious against Madara, he wondered how long this peace would last.

He hoped that it would last awhile, and he hoped that it would last long enough for his brother to heal, to learn the good things that life had to offer, the things that he had robbed him of.

After all, he still had so much to learn, so much growing to do.

**Will all our sins be justified?**

As he looked at the girl with the blue eyes and long blond hair, he pondered on her connection to his brother.

He watched as she visited many war zones, using her healing abilities to heal the wounded that remained. But more than that, he watched as she brought smiles and laughter out of those she healed.

He wondered… could she be the one that could change Sasuke in a way no one else could?

Could she give him back what he had taken?

Could she teach him to let go of hate, and hold onto love?

**Was it worth the ones we loved and had to leave behind?**

* * *

**Within Temptation- Hand of Sorrow**

**Well, what can I say, I'm still unable to get over how bittersweet and tragic the moments between Sasuke and Itachi were. **

**For those of you who liked Let Me Go, well this will be the continuation.**

**Expect multiple chapters, and lots of feels as long as I can help it.**

**Lots of angst, so therefore this is not for the weak of heart, or for those that crave rainbows and butterflies. **

**This is about the path to healing, to learning to love when all you've known is hate, and how to discover who you are when your life has been based on the lies of all those around you.**

**This is how I imagine a love story between Sasuke and Ino to play out after the tragedy of a war and a history of loss.**

**As inspired with Let Me Go, each chapter be accompanied by a song that I find fitting, and already have several thought out and assigned. **

**That being said...**

**Review and let me know what you think :)**


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